Turkish police ‘caught over 5,000 migrants at Hungarian borders’

BUDAPEST

Turkish police serving at three Hungarian border gates have so far prevented more than 5,000 irregular migrants from entering the country, local media has reported.

Turkish security personnel, assigned to support border measures within the framework of the deal reached between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in 2021 and the joint protocol signed by the interior ministers, arrive in Hungary in quarterly periods with teams of 50 people.

Inspecting nearly 1 million trucks at the borders so far, Turkish police have caught 5,128 immigrants in 224 trucks in total, daily Milliyet reported.

In addition to combating irregular migration at the Röszke, Nagylak and Csanadpolata border gates, they also assist and inform Turkish citizens in their transactions at the borders.

Turkish security forces have so far contacted over 160,000 Turks and sought solutions to their problems, according to the daily.

“Hungarians are very pleased with the protocol as our police have a lot of experience with forged documents or visas,” Turkish Ambassador to Budapest Gülşen Karanis Ekşioğlu said. “It sets a very good example for our other institutions that the Hungarian and Turkish police work shoulder to shoulder.”

It is possible to see the deal’s positive reflections in other areas, the envoy added, elaborating that the number of Turkish citizens calling the embassy has decreased by 70 percent since the Turkish police started to serve at the borders.

Two Turkish police officers, furthermore, were awarded by Orban for their work on the borderlines, Karanis Ekşioğlu added.

After the pandemic-induced low in 2020, last year was the second in a row with a steep rise in the number of irregular entries into Europe, with the Western Balkan route accounting for nearly half of the total.

In the last four years, the number of migrants on the route – although not close to the levels of 2015 – has begun to rise once again, in part due to the recent takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban armed group, according to Frontex, the EU border patrol agency.